If you check out the Home Depot and Lowes they have 2 different varieties depending on where you're located in CA.One is green the other is just a reddish exterior.

Interior wise, the green variety is identical to a lime.The reddish variety has a mixture of pink and lime colors.

A good way to tell is just the color of the skin, but it's not always accurate.Some of the varieties tend to have too many seeds and not enough content.

I ended up with a lot of finger lime trees, in the end most of them are different.One of the varieties I have yields a massive amount of fruit, 3 times a year with no seeds.I'd fill up half a 5 gallon bucket in a single harvest.The other one has too many seeds and it's possible that it's still very young.

I mainly put them on oysters, micheladas, pastries, ceviche, hamachi, uni, mix it with fresh yuzu juice.Many things to do with them actually

They deal with 24F frost just fine, they'll bloom like crazy if you leave them out during winter.

I'd like to know a couple of things. Are there varieties that would be more suitable for tropical conditions?Do you share/sell seeds? Thanks,Peter

All finger lime types will do well in the tropics I believe, but in nature they originate from the subtropical region of Mt Me, Mt Glorious& surrounds in QLD, which is about half an hour from where I live. There's

There is another type of 'finger lime' that is also available in Australia that grows a round shaped fruit about the size of a grape, but this is much better suited to arid regions of low humidity and cold, temperate regions. They originate from the Roma area of QLD where it gets extremely hot, but also gets very cold at night. It's often just called a 'desert lime'.

They are very variable from seed and very slow to fruit from seed. It can take anywhere from 7-15 years for a seed grown tree to produce, and pretty much all the varieties sold in Aus are grafted owing to this.

Fingerlimes are an understory rainforest plant that will do best with filtered light in protected positions. If you treat them like a regular citrus, they will stress and defoliate. You're mostly likely to find them in the wild growing along raised banks of creek beds in either total shade or weak light. I have only ever seen yellow skinned and green skinned wild types in the wild with either weakly green or clear vesicles. The reds and orange fleshed varieties are hybrids.

I'm not really planning on trading anymore, as the new Australian BICOMN laws effectively make it impossible. But in the past I have sent many seeds to the states and may or may have not sent grafted trees......

I put my tree under an Oak which seems perfect, a couple early morning hours of sun and the rest filtered.How wet do you want to keep them and what ph is best. Also fertilizer schedule would be nice. Thanks for sharingMy tree's leaves are very dark green but the tips of the branches keep dying off and I didn't get much new growth this season.Thanks Starling, the info you gave is the most detailed I have heard from anyone. Hey one last question can you grow them fromcuttings? I think Waxy could make a small fortune if you could grow your productive one from cuttings?

I put my tree under an Oak which seems perfect, a couple early morning hours of sun and the rest filtered.How wet do you want to keep them and what ph is best. Also fertilizer schedule would be nice. Thanks for sharingMy tree's leaves are very dark green but the tips of the branches keep dying off and I didn't get much new growth this season.Thanks Starling, the info you gave is the most detailed I have heard from anyone. Hey one last question can you grow them fromcuttings? I think Waxy could make a small fortune if you could grow your productive one from cuttings?

While I do have several that I've air layered and rooted, they fruit at such early stages.I've experienced 2-4 growth flushes with these finger limes and I am not sure if it has anything to do with stress or they're just happy. They are left in filtered sunlight 70% shade, dark green leaves.I do give away the fruits as I am not able to eat them all.Selling is definitely forbidden unless you're located in a non quarantine zone.

I put my tree under an Oak which seems perfect, a couple early morning hours of sun and the rest filtered.How wet do you want to keep them and what ph is best. Also fertilizer schedule would be nice. Thanks for sharingMy tree's leaves are very dark green but the tips of the branches keep dying off and I didn't get much new growth this season.Thanks Starling, the info you gave is the most detailed I have heard from anyone. Hey one last question can you grow them fromcuttings? I think Waxy could make a small fortune if you could grow your productive one from cuttings?

They actually prefer soil to be more alkaline than acidic, something around 6 is the rule of thumb. Why this should be the case is beyond me, because in the wild their medium is covered in very acidic detritus, so there's something else going on that isn't understood, clearly. If growing in a pot, add a good handful of lime into your mix. As for fertilizer, treat them like any other citrus; chicken manure is excellent and they do respond well to rock flour. If they are grafted they will tolerate heavy soils quite well, most of the varieties sold here are grafted onto Tri rootstock, but I've been told by a commercial grower that this is better suited to colder regions and isn't really ideal for humid tropical/subtropical regions.

You can increase blooming with potash and epsom salts (Magnesium sulfate). Here's a checklist:

a) Place in a spot that is protected from the wind, and is an area of filtered light.b) ph around 6.c) Make sure your soil is free drainingd) use fowl manure and rock flourf)Maintain a consistent soil moisture level. I can't prove it, but I have noticed defoliating after/during periods of flooding.d) keep the roots coole)Try and get a grafted variety. Some seed grown fingerlimes will never produce. My neighbor has one around 2 1/2 M in his yard, it is a perfectly healthy specimen and refuse to fruit regardless of whatever he does to it.f)The flowers are delicate, and will blow off before setting very easily. Hence the need for a protected spot. In Australia, our native bees which are very small and stingless do a superb job of pollinating them, I'm not sure how well Euro bees achieve the same thing.Waxy doesn't seem to have a problem getting them to set, so it might be a moot point.g) They will be affected by every pest and disease that affects regular citrus.

They will strike from cuttings, the main issue being that it's very difficult to get budwood in a viable diameter as they are painfully slow growing. Ditto grafting.

I am in humid sandy Florida and the ph is much higher then 6, maybe it is a little lowerbeing under the oak? I keep the tree with a ring of compost/mulch and I was using rabbit manurelast year, I can add some Canadian peat to lower the ph a bit. Does anyone know about the tip of thebranches dying off? When I had the tree in a pot it was doing that and when I put it in the ground itquit last year. Then I had the white weevils chewing the hell out of the leaves. This year the weevils went somewhere else and the tree was looking really good with some new growth. Then Irma really beat up the leaves and I see the tips dying again? I had flowers a couple years ago but not since, it isprobably 5'-6' but not very big crown. Thanks guys for any thoughts.

I planted 2 so far, 2 are waiting to be planted. Mine were grafted to Pommelo root stock I believe. Planted two in full sun, however the house blocks the sun from 12-4 pm, so that may help. I planted in sandy loam, they are doing well after 2 months, and they put out lots of new leaves after each rain just like all my other citrus.

Starling, appreciate your contribution and knowledge to help us succeed with the finger limes. Thanks for the epsom salts reminder.Ive also noticed the grafted tree's handle heavy soil much better and they do better in colder spots in my yard.My most productive in ground tree gave about 10 pounds of fruit this year. It is in full sun and provides a windbreak as it is planted in a wind tunnel location. The soil is clay and does not drain very well. This tree has not experienced die back , but others have and im pretty sure it is due to the soil drying out too much.

Peter, Ive noticed runner branches on the finger limes that have more and bigger thorns , the branches tend to twist and not fruit. I always prune these back at least to the canopy and usually remove that branch all together. Not having these gangly runner branches makes it easier to pick.

They actually prefer soil to be more alkaline than acidic, something around 6 is the rule of thumb. Why this should be the case is beyond me, because in the wild their medium is covered in very acidic detritus, so there's something else going on that isn't understood, clearly. If growing in a pot, add a good handful of lime into your mix. As for fertilizer, treat them like any other citrus; chicken manure is excellent and they do respond well to rock flour. If they are grafted they will tolerate heavy soils quite well, most of the varieties sold here are grafted onto Tri rootstock, but I've been told by a commercial grower that this is better suited to colder regions and isn't really ideal for humid tropical/subtropical regions.

You can increase blooming with potash and epsom salts (Magnesium sulfate). Here's a checklist:

a) Place in a spot that is protected from the wind, and is an area of filtered light.b) ph around 6.c) Make sure your soil is free drainingd) use fowl manure and rock flourf)Maintain a consistent soil moisture level. I can't prove it, but I have noticed defoliating after/during periods of flooding.d) keep the roots coole)Try and get a grafted variety. Some seed grown fingerlimes will never produce. My neighbor has one around 2 1/2 M in his yard, it is a perfectly healthy specimen and refuse to fruit regardless of whatever he does to it.f)The flowers are delicate, and will blow off before setting very easily. Hence the need for a protected spot. In Australia, our native bees which are very small and stingless do a superb job of pollinating them, I'm not sure how well Euro bees achieve the same thing.Waxy doesn't seem to have a problem getting them to set, so it might be a moot point.g) They will be affected by every pest and disease that affects regular citrus.

They will strike from cuttings, the main issue being that it's very difficult to get budwood in a viable diameter as they are painfully slow growing. Ditto grafting.[/quote]